Proverbs 28:19-27 · Proverbs 19:14 · Luke 15:25-27 · Matthew 18 — Wealth
The Dangers of Loving Money
Hard work reflects Jesus's values and builds a lasting foundation, while the pursuit of quick wealth through fantasies, schemes, and compromise leads to spiritual and material poverty.
The Contrast: Hard Work Versus Quick Schemes
These verses set up a clear contrast between two points of view when it comes to money. There are those who are willing to work hard and receive the benefits of their labor, versus those who are looking for quick, get-rich-quick schemes. The fundamental question is whether you’re willing to work hard and accept the benefits that come from that work, or whether you’re pursuing money through shortcuts and as a result finding poverty instead.
We’ve all seen the schemes. I have an uncle somewhere in Africa who keeps trying to send me money. Obviously I’ve never met this uncle, but if I send him certain information, he says he’ll send me a lot of money because he’s on his deathbed. I’ve resisted the urge up to now to send him my information. We can laugh about these emails, but the reality is far darker. Those who prey upon others through manipulation and deception are targeting the elderly, the naive, and those who have lost their ability to think clearly. My mother received a phone call years ago from someone claiming to be my nephew Spencer, saying he was in jail and needed help. It sure sounded like him. Thankfully, she still had enough presence of mind to make some phone calls and discovered that Spencer was on a golf course somewhere, perfectly fine. There are predators who specifically target the vulnerable. So I’ll be blunt: we are naive if we think that we can get rich without hard work.
The Path of the Farmer Versus the Fantasies
The writer of these proverbs, many say it was Solomon, contrasts the hard work of the farmer with those who chase fantasies. When we look at verse 19, we see the farmer’s work. We’re not an agricultural society anymore, but we know enough about farming to understand that you don’t just throw seed on the ground and hope something grows. A farmer works his field. He plans. He prepares the soil. He thinks carefully about how to plant his crops. There’s tremendous work that goes into it. Yes, there are things outside his control, but he goes and he plans and prepares and works hard to bring in his produce. This is set in stark contrast to the person who chases fantasies.
Driving between here and Nashville, you’ll see billboards with two numbers: Powerball and Mega Millions. The numbers go up there and Barbara and I will joke about it. Well, it’s up to a billion, should we buy a ticket? But here’s the reality: you’re far more likely to be killed by a shark than to win the lottery. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery. You’re more likely to be killed by a dog than to win the lottery. You’re more likely to die by a sunstroke, drowning, or a car crash than to win the lottery. These are fantasies. The wise man says you have this opportunity: you can work hard, or you can chase a fantasy. And if you’re going to chase the fantasy, be prepared to be impoverished. Because it’s hard work that gets you where you want to be.
The Cost of Compromising Integrity
Verse 20 conveys the same message in a different way. There is an honesty to hard work—the faithful man stands in contrast to the one chasing fantasies. But notice the language: “One eager to get rich will not go unpunished.” That word “unpunished” comes from the judicial system. In other words, this is a person who has broken moral laws in order to get rich. It’s not just fantasies; it’s breaking social norms and legal norms.
The following verses elaborate on this corruption. Verse 21 emphasizes the person willing to exchange their integrity for a bribe. Verse 22 describes the stingy man—the one willing to withhold what they have—and how such a person will find poverty. Verse 23 speaks of the person willing to flatter another to gain their trust for personal profit. And verse 24 presents the ultimate heinous fantasy: robbing from your parents. In those days, robbing your parents was tantamount to rejecting them completely. The wise person says, “He who robs his mother and father and then justifies it by saying it’s not wrong”—there’s even a proverb about this in chapter 19, verse 14, where the person robs his parents because he thinks he’ll inherit the money anyway, so why not take it now? What does that sound like? It sounds like Luke 15. And the wise man says the person willing to rob their parents is partnered with him who destroys. You take it from your parents, but you’re going to put that money in jeopardy with someone else and lose it.
Heart Alignment: Trust in God or Trust in Yourself
Verses 25, 26, and 27 make the same points but frame them in terms of where your heart is placed—either trusting in God or trusting in your ability to make money while chasing fantasies. Verse 25 says, “A greedy man stirs up dissension, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.” Here’s the key: greed is involved in chasing fantasies. Verse 26 presents the choice: either you trust in God, or you trust in yourself. And verse 27 shows that when you trust in God and work hard, you give to the poor rather than retaining everything for yourself.
All these verses set up that contrast. And I am very aware that I’m talking to people who work hard, people who are not looking for fantasies or quick-rich schemes. So what does this passage really have to say to us?
I see it with my students, and I’ve heard it in my communities. There seems to be a shift in culture where there is a desire for an easier path that will provide a great outcome. The shift is away from hard work toward something being easy. When I assign a paper, students ask, “How many sources must I use?” As if the number I give them is where they’ll stop. I usually end up saying, “At least 15 sources.” And I’m impressed with those who go further. I see the shift: “I want the A, but I don’t want to study.” What they call study is in between video games and coffee breaks. I see that shift, and I’m not perplexed by it because I did it too. I tried to find the shortcuts. I tried to find the ways to make it easy.
Choosing the Hard Path
I’m not talking to people who aren’t aware of the contrast. I’m not talking to people who are actively chasing fantasies. If you have a rich uncle in Africa somewhere, please don’t send him your information. But I am talking to people who work in a world and live in a world that’s looking for an easy path. And I am going to encourage you to choose the hard path. I’m encouraging you to choose the path of hard work—not because it’s good for you, but because it reflects your values and the values of Jesus.
Could you imagine Jesus saying, “Wait a minute, let’s choose an easier path”? Well, it happened. In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus said he had chosen the hard path—the path to the cross. And Peter said to him, “Let’s not choose that path. Let’s choose an easier one.” Remember how Jesus responded? “Get behind me, Satan.”
I’m talking to people who understand the value of hard work. But let me correct that phrase: it’s not the value of hard work. It’s the value of hard work because Jesus says hard work is valuable. Money is not the root of all evil. It’s what you do with it. It’s what your heart is. And I’m talking to people who want to work hard.
Do you know the name Harland Sanders? Some of us are old enough to know that name. Others of us only know Kentucky Fried Chicken. And if you’ve had Kentucky Fried Chicken, then you’ve had Harland Sanders’ recipe. Harland Sanders is an interesting character. In preparation for this message, I read about him. I knew he was older when he started KFC, but I didn’t realize that in Corbin, Kentucky, there is a museum dedicated to KFC and to Harland Sanders, with the story of his entire life. He was already making his chicken in Corbin before he started franchising KFC worldwide. But he got to the point where he retired. And this is what he wrote: “I was 66 years old, and I still had to make a living. I looked at my Social Security check of $105 and decided to use that to try to franchise my chicken recipe. Folks had always liked my chicken. And at 66, for the next 20 plus years, he pushed KFC into the world.”
He wrote, “The easy way is efficacious and speedy, the hard way arduous and long. But as the clock ticks away, the easy way becomes harder and the hard way becomes easier. As the calendar records the years, it becomes increasingly evident that the easy way rests upon a hazardous foundation of shifting sands, whereas the hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.”
One summer, I worked at a place in Nashville—hard work, no air conditioning in the warehouse, and summers in Nashville are similar to summers in Memphis, lots of sweating, lots of menial tasks, work that seemed to have no purpose. One day, the boss came in and said there was a guy an hour and a half down the road who needed a part. He gave me the keys to his car and asked me to take it to him and help him install it. Now, you could look at that as a menial task, but he gave me the keys to another adult’s car. As a 19-year-old kid, that made my heart race—not because it was enjoyable, but because of the responsibility. If I had a wreck, I didn’t have the money to replace the car. I was nervous driving it. But the other part of that was, later that day, the boss told me, “You don’t mind working.” I said, “No, I don’t.” That’s not to say something impressive about me. But it is to say this: if we are the hard workers in our lives, if we’re working at our jobs and in our communities, in our neighborhoods, in our homes, people see that and they’re impressed by it. They’re also cautious about it.
One of the workers at that job came up to me and said, “You need to quit working so hard. You’re making the rest of us look bad.” He was in his 50s and had worked at that job a long time. His body showed it. It was hard work, and he couldn’t go as fast as a 19-year-old. I got it. I didn’t slow down, but I understood what he was saying.
But Jesus valued hard work. And while we’re not chasing fantasies, let us be the leaders among those that we work with to show what it looks like to work hard. Let us be the ones to demonstrate that we’re people of integrity and we’re not afraid to give money away to benefit those who need it. Let us be the ones who choose the hard path—the path that requires a little sweat and investment of time and energy. And let us not be afraid to follow Jesus to a cross. Let’s not be afraid to follow him on a path which some people don’t understand, in which there will be ridicule and threats. But it’s the path that leads to God.
The writer here in verse 25 says, “He who trusts in the Lord will prosper.” The word there for prosper obviously includes wealth in some way. But the promise is not just physical wealth. He who trusts in the Lord will prosper spiritually, not just physically. There is merit in hard work. But the merit comes because we look more and more like Jesus when we work hard.
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